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Death of a Naturalist
by Seamus Heaney | Poetry
Registered by abitstormyout of Ely, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Sunday, March 04, 2007
Average 7 star rating by BookCrossing Members 

status (set by JoolsW): to be read


7 journalers for this copy...

Journal Entry 1 by abitstormyout from Ely, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Sunday, March 04, 2007

10 out of 10

Pre-numbered label used for registration.

I absolutely love Heaney - I studied this anthology at school. This copy is able to go free as I have my favourite Heaney poems in his Selected Poems. I've made a few notes on poems I like especially throughout the book ;-)

From the back of the book:

With it's lyrical and descriptive powers, Death of a Naturalist marked the auspicious debut of one of the century;s finest poets. 

Journal Entry 2 by abitstormyout at Caffe Nero IP1 book-crossing zone in Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom on Friday, March 09, 2007

This book has not been rated.

Released 4 yrs ago (3/10/2007 UTC) at Caffe Nero IP1 book-crossing zone in Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Taking to the Ipswich Meet tomorrow! 

Journal Entry 3 by wingcandy-is-dandywing from Braintree, Essex United Kingdom on Saturday, March 10, 2007

This book has not been rated.

Picked up at the Ipswich meet (and what a good meet it was too). Never read any Seamus Heaney - trying to educate myself. 

Journal Entry 4 by wingcandy-is-dandywing from Braintree, Essex United Kingdom on Monday, April 14, 2008

5 out of 10

I've tried but I think I'm too shallow and lazy to put in the brain-energy required for reading poetry. It's hard work and I feel I'm not getting what I should out of these poems - my fault entirely. 

Journal Entry 5 by wingCassiopaeiawing from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Sunday, April 20, 2008

This book has not been rated.

Wow, I was so happy to find this little gem hiding on the book table this morning. Seamus Heaney is one of my favourite poets! Thanks candy for bringing it to London. It might be a little while before it gets released again, I'll find it difficult to let go of this one, worth all the travelling just to find it. 

Journal Entry 6 by wingCassiopaeiawing from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Tuesday, May 27, 2008

This book has not been rated.

This book has kept me constant company for the last month, since I caught it in London. I find Heaney's work on one level very simple yet on another magnificently profound. There is hardly a poem in this collection that doesn't touch a nerve, but one I particulatly like is 'Synge on Aran'. It encapsulates the essence of the landscape, the people and the quality of Synge's writing in a wonderfuly sparce and pared down style reminicent of the geology of islands themselves. Here it is:

Salt off the sea whets
the blades of four winds.
They peel acres
of locked rock, pare down
a rind of shrivelled ground;
bull-noses are chiselled
on cliffs.

Islanders too
are for sculpting. Note
the pointed scowl, the mouth
carved as upturned anchor
and the polished head
full of drownings.

There
he comes now, a hard pen
scraping in his head;
the nib filed on a salt wind
and dipped in the keening of the sea.


Biography
Interview 

Journal Entry 7 by wingCassiopaeiawing from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Tuesday, June 03, 2008

This book has not been rated.

This book will now go out on a short bookring.

Please journal when you receive it.
And contact the next in line in good time when ready to send on.
Try to keep the book for no more than a month.
Any problems with this update your journal entry to keep us informed.
Thank you and enjoy.

Sunday 8th June on the way to wanderingstar8 in London.

Participants
wanderingstar8, London
mance, Newcastle Emlyn, Wales ~ Found by Originalmulli, travelling again~
Cross-patch, Leceister, UK
ecossaise, Berlin, Germany
CaterinaAnna, Coventry, England
PePeLePew, Sarajevo, Bosnia

Link to replacement copy
Death of a Naturalist 

Journal Entry 8 by wingCassiopaeiawing at Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Sunday, June 08, 2008

This book has not been rated.

Released 3 yrs ago (6/9/2008 UTC) at Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Ready to go in the post to wanderingstar8. 

Journal Entry 9 by wanderingstar8 from London , Greater London United Kingdom on Thursday, June 12, 2008

This book has not been rated.

just received ... looking forward to reading it. 

Journal Entry 10 by wanderingstar8 from London , Greater London United Kingdom on Thursday, July 31, 2008

7 out of 10

Cassiopaeia - thank you so much for setting up this bookring. I loved this collection of poems - such amazing imagery. I knew a few of them, but there were many others which I really enjoyed discovering. In particular, I've read "Digging" many times - but I hadn't realised that it was the first poem in the first collection that Heaney published - almost a manifesto for the rest of his work.

"Synge in Aran" was also one of my very favourite poems from this collection. The others were "Death Of A Naturalist" itself, "Churning Day" (incredibly vivid - I've never seen butter being made but I could imagine it perfectly) and "Personal Helicon":

‘Personal Helicon’

As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
So deep you saw no reflection in it.

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium.
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom.

Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

On its way to Mance. Really sorry for having kept it for so long. 

Journal Entry 11 by lostbookisland on Monday, December 15, 2008

This book has not been rated.

This book has washed ashore at the Lost Book Island after not being heard from for many months. This new arrival will be shown to a room and be allowed a bit of rest before being introduced to the many fun things to do here at the island.

All around there are books sipping cool drinks under shady palms while other books participate in a wide variety of beach sports. There is plenty of sand, surf and sun here for all of the lost and wayward books to enjoy.

It is hoped that very soon a new journal entry will come to rescue this book from the island and send it back out into the BookCrossing world so that it may continue on its journey. It is hoped that the new journal entry will tell all the interested parties where this book has been this long time and where it will be traveling to next.
 

Journal Entry 12 by Originalmulli from Newcastle Emlyn, Wales United Kingdom on Monday, February 01, 2010

This book has not been rated.

I recently found this book which was lost many months ago with my husband mance. Many apologies for the inconvenience caused in replaying it etc. I hope to get it travelling again in due course. 

Journal Entry 13 by Originalmulli at Newcastle Emlyn, Wales United Kingdom on Thursday, July 21, 2011

This book has not been rated.

Released 6 mos ago (7/22/2011 UTC) at Newcastle Emlyn, Wales United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Adding this to a Poetry mini bookbox started by wildflower. travelling again at last. Posting to JoolsW and hoping it can go onwards from there. 

Journal Entry 14 by wingJoolsWwing at Haworth, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Sunday, August 07, 2011

This book has not been rated.

I received this in the European Poetry bookbox started by wildflower. I'm looking forward to reading it before setting it on its travels again.

 



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